Chatype, Chattanooga’s typeface, is a go

In the not so distant past, a couple of professionals involved in typeface design got together and asked, “Wouldn’t it be cool for our city, Chattanooga, to have its own professional typeface?” Followed by “Hey, we could do it.” Thus began what is becoming chatype.

Not a slapdash process, they went at not only design but marketing. And as the penultimate step they initiated a kickstart project.

The basics of the deal were that if they could raise $10,000 in kickstart, they’d commit to all the work of finishing a professional typeface for the city. That’s multiple weights, webfonts, special characters, and a bunch of little touches pros add (kerning, ligatures, that sort of thing). I’m going to assume most of you are as ignorant as I was about this and tell you that is a serious bargain. ahem, let me try again. SERIOUS BARGAIN.

But wait, there’s more.

If you’re a Chattanooga business, organization, or individual, you will have the right to use the typeface for free. That, too, was part of the bargain.

It will be, according to the designers, the first city character typeface in the US. Not the world; there are apparently a lot of these in places like Europe where the city purchased a design that is theirs, for signs, documents, and all the rest. But in the US, it’s going to be first.

Kinda neat, and I thought I’d share.

Oh, two vimeo links to finish. Not insets so as to save space, but the links should work. They’re two videos created to sell the font to the city and community. The first is boring but informative; a recorded town hall presentation. The second is pretty, meant to sell the idea of the font. It could also be a “why live in Chattanooga” video. Enjoy.